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CJR


 

CJR Console

The CJR Console from 1953

 

CJR Ltd

CJR D5 Recorder
The Authors CJR D5 Tape recorder from around 1953. The machine incorporates the Bradmatic "Bradmaster" 3 head deck. The machine features seperate record and replay amplifiers. The valve line up is a mixture of Octal and B8a series of valves.

CJR Ltd of Bickford Road, Whitton Birmingham is another of those little known about firms that appear to have started up in the latter half of the 1940s. It is thought that they were first formed in around 1947/48, and initially produced a complete amplifier chassis based on the famous Williamson design that had first appeared in the Wireless World of 1947. They also advertised a contrast expander unit, tuners and loudspeaker crossover units throughout the late 1940s and into the early 1950s.That is really all that is known of this particular firm and its origins. No surviving records have surfaced to indicate who was actually behind the set up but CJR advertised fairly frequently. Much of this advertising was linage in the back of the Wireless World with an occasional larger advert appearing with a picture of the equipment being made at the time, suggesting a very small operation with a small advertising budget. Some of these early amplifiers do survive however, and occasionally turn up at Hi-fi Collectors fairs.

CJR Contrast Expansion CJR Williamson Amplifier
This advert for the contrast expander first appeared in May 1949
The CJR "Williamson" Amplifer from an advert that appeared during 1950

 

CJR appears to have entered the reel to reel recorder market in 1952 with a magnetic recording amplifier of their own design and manufacture followed shortly after by what appears to be a very short lived console featuring the same recording amplifier and Bradmatic deck this was followed by a complete transportable recorder also utilising the Bradmatic tape transport and known as the type D1. There appears to have been a link between Bradmatic and CJR although it is not exactly clear what this may have been. Bradmatic promoted the CJR machines in some of their advertising up until the mid 1950s when they seem to have lost the CJR badge. What happened to them after this is a mystery as CJR appears to have just disappeared. They were apparently a subsidiary of Witton Electronics.
Returning to the transportable models, these appeared as several different models each with slightly different specifications although the layout appears to have remained much the same. The CJR recorders were in the semi professional class of equipment. They are rare though and as original sales generally dictate the survival rate they could not have sold in any great numbers. The use also of the Bradmatic tape deck is an interesting one and the deck is definitely on a par with the others that were available at the time. Surprisingly the Bradmatic deck, also marketed for several years does not appear to have survived particularly well despite a number of salient features and these are also a rare find, either as a standalone deck or for that matter adopted in a commercially produced recorder. They also introduced a version capable of taking a 10 ½ in sized spool long before many of the other major manufacturers. The CJR recorders are well engineered although some of the chassis work is a little amateurish with the authors example suggesting the metal bashing work was cobbled together hurriedly with holes drilled in the wrong places etc. These are all covered up by the smart cream coloured engraved fascias so are definitely factory issued bodges.
Any further information on CJR would be most welcome as their history and technical information is woefully incomplete at the moment.

 

CJR recording amp
A 1952 advert for the CJR recording amplifer. It does not appear to have been used in the CJR transportable recorders.